


out of the loop

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, as witnessed by 127, but only sort of, there’s some kissing and bickering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24614437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “But youhateeach other.”Donghyuck nods from his spot on one end of the couch. “Yep. Can’t stand the guy.”Mark snorts from the opposite end. The flush on his face is significantly lighter now, and he picks up a cushion to fling it towards Donghyuck’s face. “The feeling’s mutual, asshole.”—Or, Mark and Donghyuck’s relationship, through the eyes of their friends.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 15
Kudos: 496





	out of the loop

**Author's Note:**

> this was literally the most random thing i have ever written lmao

* * *

  
  


Taeyong’s throat hurts from shouting.

He didn’t mean to, is the thing. He didn’t mean to walk in on Mark and Donghyuck, is another.

“But — I thought — what,” he sputters, at a loss for words. His eyes are blinking rapidly, as if trying to expel the image of Mark on top of Donghyuck, tongue so far down his throat. It doesn’t go away, sadly, like a stain on pristine carpet, and he takes a shuddering exhale. Centers himself, the way Doyoung does when he’s on the receiving end of Donghyuck’s prank. “Why are you two...but you _hate_ each other.”

Donghyuck nods from his spot on one end of the couch. “Yep. Can’t stand the guy.”

Mark snorts from the opposite end, having sprung away from Donghyuck the moment Taeyong started wailing like an ambulance. The flush on his face is significantly lighter now, and he picks up a cushion to fling it towards Donghyuck’s face. “The feeling’s mutual, asshole.”

Taeyong nods like he gets it, but he doesn’t. His brain feels like it’s melting inside his head. Any moment now, it’s going to leak out of his ears. “So you can’t stand each other. But — you can tolerate _kissing_?”

“He can’t talk when his mouth is busy doing other things,” Mark shrugs.

“And _he_ can’t act like he’s so much better than _me_ when he’s enjoying how good I kiss him.” Donghyuck smiles sweetly, but his sarcasm corrodes like acid.

Taeyong swallows. He still has so many questions, but the sudden tension in the room feels like a hand on his throat, and he starts backing away. You run and take cover from the storm, so that’s what he’s going to do. “I...okay. Please don’t kill each other.”

And then he turns and flees. To the kitchen, where he keeps his alcohol. God knows he needs it.

  
  
  
  


  
  
  


* * *

Jungwoo gets a crash course on the Mark and Donghyuck history from Jaehyun. They’re queueing inside a café before they head over to their shared class when Jaehyun thought it was the perfect time to tell him about what Taeyong witnessed in his own flat yesterday.

“But why did Yongie freak out?” Jungwoo asks, shuffling forward as the line on the counter gets shorter. “They were just kissing.” 

“It’s Mark and Donghyuck,” Jaehyun shrugs.

Jungwoo tilts his head in confusion. All this time, he thought what those two have going on is unresolved sexual tension. But then again, he recently just joined their circle, after he befriended Jaehyun in class and then got invited to one of Johnny’s parties, so he isn’t well-informed on all the separate affairs going inside their group. Luckily, Jaehyun fills in the gaps for him.

“So they hate each other because Hyuckie dated Mark’s crush?” 

“Basically,” Jaehyun nods. “Mark had a thing for Yewon, which Hyuck knew, and he encouraged Mark to ask her out. But Mark got pissed that Hyuck was being all up in his business so he told Hyuck to do it himself if it wasn’t so hard.”

“And Hyuckie did,” Jungwoo surmises. 

Jaehyun gives him a thumbs up. “It wasn’t surprising, since Hyuck’s the type to take up any challenge thrown at him. The surprise was that Yewon said yes.”

Jungwoo lets that sink in as he steps toward the counter. The barista greets him and Jaehyun with a harried smile, punching in their orders with the kind of frenzy one gets from having too much caffeine in their system. It’s a hectic Monday morning, Jungwoo can’t help but sympathize.

“Anyway, they only lasted for a month,” Jaehyun tells him later, as they exit the café, drinks in hand. “But during that time, Mark got really cold towards Hyuck.”

“I mean, I kind of get it,” Jungwoo says, taking a long sip of his caramel macchiato. “Like, you proved your point but you don’t have to go through with it? Seems kind of disrespectful to Mark’s feelings.”

Jaehyun sighs, running his free hand through his hair. It’s newly-dyed, light peach and looking soft to the touch. “I’m not defending Donghyuck here, but I can see why he did it. He didn’t want to let down Yewon, and I guess he thought Mark would understand that. But Mark was being petty, even when he apologized, so he got petty, too.”

“They’re both stupid,” Jungwoo grimaces. They’re nearing the business administration building, so they pick up the pace of their walking. “But they made out. I know that isn’t an indication of a relationship, but just to be sure, are they dating now?”

Jaehyun smirks. He looks dashing like this, and Jungwoo finally understands why Doyoung is obsessed with his face. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

  
  
  
  


  
  
  


* * *

The task gets assigned to Sicheng. He doesn’t want to do it, he doesn’t even _care_ , but Taeyong pulled the kicked puppy look on him, and Jaehyun hid his Nintendo Switch, so he doesn’t have any choice. His five-star island on Animal Crossing is waiting for him.

“Are you dating Mark?” he asks, bluntly and without preamble, like how Sicheng approaches most things. 

To Donghyuck’s credit, he doesn’t even falter as he takes a seat across Sicheng in the dining hall. He’s been anticipating the inquisition for days. “I’m not,” he answers, reaching over to swipe some fries from Sicheng’s lunch tray.

And that should be it, conversation over. But Sicheng accounts the three stolen fries, and decides Donghyuck can compensate by answering two more questions. Not that he’s curious, he just wants to cover some bases in case their friends whine about loose ends. “How did you two went from fighting to making out?”

“Well,” Donghyuck chews on his fries and contemplates, swallowing before he continues. “It was a heat of the moment thing, I guess? We still fight, but now we end arguments with kisses.”

Sicheng raises an eyebrow. “And you’re okay with it.”

“I like kissing,” Donghyuck grins, “I’ll take what I can get.”

The thing is, Sicheng can sniff bullshit from a mile away. He prides himself on being no-nonsense, paying privy to observation and taking in the minute details to differentiate what’s real and what’s fake. 

Donghyuck’s smile now? Definitely fake. 

There’s also the implication behind his words, but Sicheng decides not to prod any further. He hums noncommittally and pushes his fries to Donghyuck as silent consolation.

  
  
  


  
  


* * *

Yuta isn’t drunk. He’s tipsy, at best, feeling warm on the inside like someone lit a string of fairy lights under his skin. He feels kind of floaty, too, but that’s only because he and Jaehyun won the beer pong competition. 

He pushes past the cram of people, smiling at whoever claps him on the shoulder, on the back, congratulating him for the win as he makes the trek up the stairs to the bathroom.

Johnny, that lucky bastard, shares a two-story house with Ten and Kun. It’s great for parties, and even greater for bathroom emergencies. Because there’s two. And Yuta needs to piss, badly.

There are people littering the hallway when Yuta makes it upstairs, but there’s no line forming in front of the bathroom. He makes a beeline towards it, turning the knob and sighing in relief when he finds it unlocked.

What he sees inside makes him want to take back that relief, though. 

Donghyuck has Mark pinned against the vanity, and they’re kissing with the kind of fervor reserved to a man starving; a little feral, and a whole lot shameless.

“Holy shit,” Yuta gapes, hand falling away from the doorknob. Donghyuck and Mark break apart to look at him, but this time, they stay pressed close to each other despite the intrusion. 

“Oh, hey hyung.” Donghyuck gives him a nod, before starting to attack Mark’s neck.

The image kills the little inebriety Yuta has, taking the warmth and the lightheadedness with it. Maybe a little bit of his soul, too. He wants to turn away, feeling like a damn voyeur as he continues to just stand there, but he’s rooted in place. 

“Hyung,” Mark breathes out, adressing him. Yuta feels his stomach churn, like he ate something bad. Something terrible and spoiled. Something he shouldn’t have. “Can you, _ah_ , shut the door, please?”

Stunned and overwhelmed, Yuta can only respond with, “I need to piss.”

That gets them to stop, pulling away from each other reluctantly. Donghyuck shoots him a glare as he pushes past him. “Don’t take too long.”

Yuta goes ahead and does just that. Partly out of spite, mostly because he needs to process what he just witnessed. He isn’t a prude, not by a long shot; he’s been caught in a compromising position once or twice, and seen others be in it, as well, but there’s just something about Mark and Donghyuck acting without any discretion that leaves him traumatized.

When he opens the door again, Mark is quick to push Donghyuck inside. Yuta sighs in resignation, and makes his way downstairs.

It doesn’t take him long to find Taeyong, collapsing beside him on the couch. “Hey,” Taeyong whispers, lifting a hand to brush Yuta’s hair off of his face. Yuta’s eyes close at the gentleness of it all. “You look like you’re going to be sick. Did you have too much to drink?”

Yuta shakes his head. “I walked in on Mark and Hyuck upstairs.”

“Oh no,” Taeyong says before pulling him into a comforting embrace. “That must’ve been terrible.”

“It was,” Yuta agrees, but his voice is muffled by the cotton of Taeyong’s shirt. He basks in the warmth of his boyfriend and snuggles closer to him. “Fuck, I’m gonna have nightmares over this for weeks.”

  
  
  


  
  


* * *

Mark and Donghyuck’s honeymoon phase is jarring, to say the least, but Johnny’s getting used to it. They don’t fight anymore, just bicker, and even then, it feels more like flirting than anything. 

He and the rest of their friends have been the audience to their nauseating little show for weeks now. It starts with one of them saying something, but this time around, it’s a blatant invitation for the other to argue against. It honestly feels like they’re just looking for a way that leads them to sucking off each other’s faces in the end, but everyone lets them. 

For example:

_“Wearing that shirt again? That’s what, the third time I’m seeing you in that shirt this week. Have you even washed it?”_

_“Bold words coming from someone who doesn’t shower. Have_ you _washed yourself this week? You stink.”_

Here’s another:

_“Why are you giving me a drink? Did you spit in it? Put poison in it?”_

_“You literally saw me pour the punch in the cup. As much as I want to put something in it, there wasn’t any chance.”_

_“So you would, if you had the opportunity.”_

_“Duh. Anything to finally get rid of you, Mark.”_

And another:

_“Android users don’t get to have an opinion in this house.”_

_“Is this your roundabout way of getting me to switch to iPhone? Want us to match that badly?”_

It all ends the same way — one of them would walk out of the room, the other following behind after some time. Probably to desecrate some poor solid surface, but Johnny’s not gonna judge.

He supposes it’s a step towards maturity. Sure, it’s a really complicated step, because it’s supposed to be one foot in front of the other, and Mark and Donghyuck somehow zigzag their feet together, but it’s a step nonetheless. 

So Johnny sits back and watch. 

“Yes, my taste in everything is terrible, I mean, I’m hooking up with _you_ ,” Donghyuck is saying this time.

Mark snorts as he scrolls through the Netflix titles on the TV. “Like you could do so much better?”

Johnny sees Donghyuck straighten up, at that. The humor in his eyes gets replaced with something sharper, and they glint like the blade of a knife as he leans forward to cut through Mark’s personal space.

“Is that a challenge?” 

Mark blinks, realizing his mistake. Johnny’s sure he’s remembering the last time he taunted Donghyuck into doing something. He swallows. “You can do whatever you want, Hyuck.”

“That’s not an outright yes,” Donghyuck teases. He plants a swift kiss on Mark’s cheek before leaning back on the couch. “I think we should watch The Kissing Booth.”

Yuta and Sicheng shoot down his suggestion as they enter the living room with bowls of popcorn. If they notice the blush on Mark’s face, they don’t comment on it. Johnny smiles to himself. It’s a step, alright.

  
  
  


  
  
  


* * *

Doyoung isn’t surprised when he finds Mark on his doorstep. Frankly, he’s been waiting for him to show up since last year.

He’s seen the way Mark behaves when Donghyuck’s around. Even before the Yewon thing happened, and especially after that. Jaehyun, for all the head space he has, thinks it’s because Donghyuck stole Yewon from Mark.

He has a completely different theory, though. And he has a feeling, that today is the day he confirms whether he’s right or not.

“So,” Mark begins as soon as he gets settled on Doyoung’s bed. “You know why I’m here.”

It isn’t a question, but he answers anyway. “Donghyuck.”

Mark smiles. “He’s an asshole.”

“But he’s an asshole you like.”

“Yeah, for a long time now.” Mark laughs, eyes fixed on the ceiling as his fingers play with one of Doyoung’s plushies. “He makes me feel _so much_ , both the good and the bad. I don’t think I’ve ever been that angry or jealous in my life until I met him.”

Doyoung nods. “So you pushed him away.”

“It wasn’t because I was mad at him. I was mad at myself, because him dating Yewon made me realize I didn’t want to date her, I wanted to date _him_. But you already know this, right?” Mark asks, turning sideways to look at Doyoung from where he’s sat on his computer chair, at the end of the bed.

“I only had a hunch,” Doyoung tells him. 

“Was I being obvious?”

Doyoung thinks of sunflowers, the way they turn to the sun, tracking its movement, soaking up every light. Mark’s always been like that when it comes to Donghyuck. “To me, you were.”

Mark rolls over onto his back again. “Donghyuck probably thinks I still hate him. And that’s why he hates me.”

At this, Doyoung vacillates. Donghyuck’s secret is his to tell, but it wouldn’t hurt to nudge Mark in the right direction, would it? 

“I won’t be so sure about that.”

“Huh?” Mark sits up abruptly, blinking wide eyes at Doyoung. His confusion is comical, if not a little endearing. “Hyung, what are you saying?”

Doyoung grins. “I’m saying you should talk to him. And that’s the only thing you’ll be getting out of me.”

  
  
  


  
  
  


* * *

Jaehyun learns two things after he leaves his dorm room to give Mark and Donghyuck some privacy. One, he isn’t above eavesdropping to collect some gossip; and two, well…he’ll know once his friends are done with their conversation.

It sounds serious, from what he’s hearing, like confession-type of serious, the whole _I like you, go out with me_ shebang. Jaehyun remembers the tense line of Mark’s shoulders as he ushers him inside his and Donghyuck’s shared room, and silently wishes him good luck. 

“Just, I feel like you have to know,” Mark says, though his voice is kind of muffled by the wood no matter how hard Jaehyun is pressing his ear against it. “Because at this point, I don’t think I can hide it.”

“Is it that you can’t actually stand kissing me?” Donghyuck asks.

“What? No — Hyuck, I like kissing you. I like _you_.”

Jaehyun’s mouth drops open in surprise. He shuffles even closer against the door, straining to hear Mark say, “I’ve liked you for so long. I only pretended to hate you because, well, because I was being stupid! I didn’t expect you to hate me back, but I didn’t mind that. Hating me meant you went out of your way to piss me off, and I thrived on that attention. On any attention, as long as it came from you.”

There’s silence on Donghyuck’s end. Jaehyun wishes he could see his reaction right now. 

“But then we kissed,” Mark continues, undeterred. “And then we kept on kissing, and Hyuck, I like to keep on kissing you. It’s just that — I want us to be dating before we continue.”

“Mark...you’re so fucking stupid.”

Jaehyun blinks. He’s ready to knock down the door just to stop Donghyuck from breaking Mark’s heart, but he’s speaking again.

“Which is great, because apparently, so am I.” Donghyuck snorts. “I never hated you, either. I just took whatever I could get from you, because that’s better than radio silence.”

“O-oh. So all this time…?”

“Yep.”

“Wow.”

”Yep.”

What Jaehyun hears next is the sound of two bodies collapsing on a bed. He hopes they’re not on his, and takes his phone out.

  
  


_idiot party_ (8)

**jaehyun**

GUYS

MARK JUST CONFESSED TO HYUCK

**taeyong**

confessed what?

**doyoung**

jaehyun what the fuck

are you listening in on them

**jaehyun**

not anymore bc im p sure theyre making out rn

but anyway THEY NEVER HATED EACH OTHER

**yuta**

holy shit

**jungwoo**

omg? but you said they were!

**jaehyun**

i was wrong

we were ALL wrong

**doyoung**

i never said or thought they hated each other

**winwin**

lol me neither

**jaehyun**

yeah right

**johnny**

holy shit did they really take the next step??

**jaehyun**

i think they’re taking it even further

**taeyong**

jaehyun please give them some privacy

everyone come over rn we need to discuss this

  
  
**jaehyun**

aye aye

He pockets his phone and dusts his pants after standing up. Now that he knows the truth, everything is so much clearer. Jaehyun isn’t gonna pretend he knew all along, but he can admit that he’s wondered if there’s something else simmering between the two. Beneath the jabs, behind that anger. Mark and Donghyuck have that undeniable pull to each other, and for all their differences, they shouldn’t work, but they do. They really, really do.

And now, they’re dating. Jaehyun smiles. Maybe he should take a page from them and try it with Doyoung.

  
  
  


* * *

Taeil doesn’t shout.

What he does is walk right back to the living room where everyone else is.

“I just saw Hyuck and Mark kissing by the fridge,” he tells them.

No one bats an eyelash. Taeyong’s eyebrows droop sadly, though. “Hyung, they’ve been dating for a month now.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that,” Taeil says, but he isn’t really surprised. Donghyuck used to tell him how hot he finds Mark whenever he’s angry at him. “Why did no one tell me?”

Yuta starts cackling. “Johnny, pay up! I _knew_ hyung has our group chat muted.”

Taeil blinks. “We have a group chat?”


End file.
